A Very Memorable Birthday
by MRSTJ1
Summary: Luna Lovegood wants Harry Potter's help with a Quibbler story, but he winds up needing her help when he's accused of a murder.
1. Chapter 1

A Very Memorable Birthday

Based on a plot bunny by Mary Janice Davidson.

By: MRSTJ1

Luna spun around in her office chair to read the latest memo from her father. She had insisted on modern office furniture when she had come to work at the Quibbler, and she would never regret it. Being on wheels, she felt, was a distinct advantage in the magazine business.

"_Witch Weekly _is killing us," she sighed to her best friend at work, who happened to be the head of the photography department. "It's like being attacked by a menopausal snorkack."

"We expanded too quickly," Colin said with a shrug. "Your father should have listened to you in the first place. You told him to take it slowly"

"Well, he thought that with the war over, people would do more light reading." Luna sipped some coffee, and stared moodily at some notes she had gotten from her father that morning.

"This special edition can't be dropped, so we go back to a normal monthly schedule?" Colin asked hopefully.

"No, Daddy already sold it to the advertisers."

"But we don't have a lead story," Colin whined. Honestly, Luna thought, sometimes he was just so flamboyant. He had always been sweet, but coming out of the closet had made him a tad too swishy. Luna hoped it was overcompensation and that he would outgrow it.

"Then it's time to go to the top again," she said, pushing the proofs of some new rune puzzles into a neat pile. She tossed her long, blonde plait of hair back behind her and shrugged. "What do we always do when we need a big story?"

"Harry?" Colin asked, brightening.

"Harry," Luna nodded.

Harry Potter gave no interviews, except to the Quibbler. Ever loyal to the few surviving friends he had, it was a long standing rule of his, and it had stood the Quibbler in good stead several times before. A Harry Potter story would save the issue. Since the war he had kept as low a profile as possible, finding "the-man-who-defeated-the-Dark-Lord" just as distasteful a title as "the-boy-who-lived". He was not a recluse exactly, but he preferred keeping out of the limelight. He saw her often, and Ron and Hermione, and Neville Longbottom, but the war had taken a toll on him, and he preferred peace and quiet. If she asked him, though, Luna knew he would come through.

"What's the angle this time? You already used him for the Horcrux story and the story about Dumbledore's last night, and you've quoted him in at least a dozen other stories over the last couple of years."

"I'll think of something." She picked up a piece of parchment and wrote quickly before she could change her mind.

_Dearest Harry,_

_Colin and I are sitting here thinking about our favorite hero. _

_Tee-hee!_

_We're in deep again, and I need your help. I swear, this is the last time, but then isn't that what I always say? I'll do my best to make it stick after this, though. Can we meet for dinner? How about the Dragon Flagon at seven? I know the Leaky Cauldron is too crowded on Friday nights for us to be able to talk. _

_Write back!_

_I will sit right here and not move until you do. I don't know about Colin, though. I think he has a hot date with the janitor._

_As ever,_

_Luna_

Colin leaned over her shoulder and yelped, "You brat! I do have a hot date, but it happens to be with the head of the art department!"

"You do go through them," Luna sighed. "I wonder if Ginny knew when she was dating him that Dean was gay?"

"I don't think HE knew," said Colin. "Hey, maybe that's the angle we need for the story!"

"What? A story about how many gay friends Harry had at Hogwarts while remaining totally clueless about them? Not even Harry would let me do that," Luna said, tying the note onto the screech owl that sat on the perch next to her window. She let him out, and watched him fly away.

"No," said Colin slowly. "We could do a tribute to Ginny Weasley. After she got killed Harry never mentioned her again. It was weird. Maybe it's time for a memorial- a look back."

"NO!" Luna said firmly, slamming the window. "Harry broke up with Ginny at the end of our fifth year, because he thought it would make her safer. Well, I could have told him that was a stupid idea. Voldemort already knew who Harry's friends were. He was trying to get at all of us from the day we left the Department of Mysteries, but Harry wasn't thinking straight right after Dumbledore died. He has always felt guilty that Ginny was the one that got caught."

Colin looked thoughtful. "I always wondered if he really loved her. To me they were too much alike to make it. They were both hot tempered and impulsive, and she was so much like a sister to him for so long, it was like watching a documentary on incest."

Luna flopped back down on her chair. "He never told her he loved her. Ginny never told him she loved him. She admitted that to me after they broke up. She always thought it was just something crazy they did to try to have a bit of a normal life before the war really got underway. It was the last time they could just think about Quidditch, and hanging out, and school gossip, before things really got going."

"Didn't you date him for awhile? I thought you did."

"Officially? Just once," Luna said, remembering a silver spangled dress and how it felt to have all of the girls who had made fun of her for years lined up with their tongues hanging out from envy. It had been the best night of her life, aside from the night that her father had gotten an award for actually interviewing and photographing a Cyclops. She shook her head to clear the image of Harry standing in front of her, asking her to go to an exclusive party with him. "But ever since then, he always has been, and always will be, my best friend. We see each other a lot, but not seriously. I don't think Harry even knows how to do serious."

"Too bad," Colin said, doing some remembering of his own.

"Out!" Luna said, laughing at the dreamy expression on his face. "Go start planning a layout. I've decided…we're going to do a feature on Grimmauld Place, one of the oldest wizarding homes still standing in Britain. Tell Daddy it will have LOTS of pictures."

Colin looked delighted. "Luna, you're brilliant!"

"That's why I was in Ravenclaw."

After Colin had gone, Luna glanced at the picture hanging beside her desk. Six faces smiled back at her, one of them her own. Merlin, she thought, why didn't I ever do something about my hair when I was at school? It had been so easy, though, just to let it hang or put it up in a knot. Harry had told her once that the time she'd come out of the greenhouse with a smudge of dirt on her nose and her hair piled up was the first time he's really thought of her as cute.

"You did not," she'd replied.

"Yes, I did. You said you believed in me, and you'll never know what that meant to me. What you meant to me."

Luna knew what believing in Harry had meant to her. It made her feel powerful, because it felt so right. It didn't matter any more what people had thought of her, or how they had either abused or ignored her. Standing up for Harry in front of all those people had set her free. She had in her heart become someone bold and free, for Harry Potter's sake.

Ron and Hermione looked pretty much the same. Luna thought back to their wedding. Even though she and Harry both hated dancing, they had danced that night, and it has been wonderful. Luna had been so happy for Ron and Hermione, even though she and Hermione had not always gotten along. Hermione had always been Luna's psychic opposite. Practical, where Luna tended to take more on faith, she now had two kids ages three and five at home and had just found out another baby was on the way. They went to France every spring to see Bill and Fleur, and to Disney World every fall. Hermione made her own Christmas cards and Ron out of sentiment drove a Ford Anglia, even though it was a pain to get parts for it. Luna remembered when Hermione had told them all the new baby was on the way.

"God, Hermione, when you became a Weasley, you really became a Weasley!" Harry had grumbled, but Luna knew he was secretly thrilled for them. Harry loved having the Weasley kids over to Grimmauld Place. He would play hide and seek with them for hours, in the massive house, and then made sure to fill them up with enough sweets and ice cream that it took both of their parents to peel them off the ceiling when it was time to take them home.

Neville looked the same, too. He had never married, and had taken over Professor Sprout's job when she had retired. The kids at Hogwarts loved him. Luna privately wondered if he hadn't still been carrying a torch for Ginny when she had died. She and Ginny and Neville had all gotten quite close when Harry, Hermione, and Ron had gone off to do the things they never told anyone about.

The one face that would never ever change stared back at her. Luna looked into the brown eyes, and at the fiery red hair, and sighed. No one would ever know what would have happened if Ginny had lived. And there was nothing any of them could do about that, outside of the fact that Hermione and Ron had named one daughter Ginevra Jane and the other one Molly Ginevra. Luna was really hoping the next one was a boy.

She heard tapping and saw that the owl was already back.

_Hey Girl!_

_You can move now if you want to. I think I can manage to clear my fantastically crowded social calendar and meet you at seven. But what are you doing working on your birthday? Don't tell me…your father forgot the day you were born, didn't he? Let's get this magazine back on track, so you can have a life again.  
And when you get one, tell me what it's like._

_Ha! Ha!_

_I'd tell you to give my love to Colin, but I'm afraid you would! But I will tell you more about THAT when I see you!_

_Love,_

_Harry_

Luna glanced at the calendar. Damn it! It WAS her birthday. Not only had Daddy forgotten but she had, too. Not that it mattered. Her birthdays were notorious for being bad news. Her mother had died two days before her birthday when she was nine, so the funeral had been on her special day. If just one more person had come up to her that day and said, "Happy birthday! Isn't this awful?" she would have spontaneously set them on fire.

When she was ten she'd fallen in the creek just below Stoatshead Hill. Never much of a swimmer, she would have drowned if Cedric Diggory hadn't of been passing by on his way to the Fawcett house and pulled her out by her hair.

When she was eleven she had been stuck in her room all night with five girls who hated her guts, all because the entire school had been locked down. People, and ghosts, and animals were getting petrified all over the place. They had blamed Harry Potter, and she had watched him, whenever she could, and had seen the misery in his eyes. She knew it wasn't true.

When she was twelve one of her dorm mates had stolen all of her sheets and blankets and she'd had to sleep for a week on a bare mattress, until she found them buried under the window seat of the common room.

When she was thirteen she had gotten her period for the first time and none of the girls would loan her anything to use. She'd had to walk all the way to the nurse's office with a wad of rolled up toilet paper in her knickers.

When she was fourteen, someone in the dorm had stolen one of each of her socks, so she'd had to walk around wearing the mismatched ones she had left. Marietta Edgecomb had called her "Dobby" on the way back from a DA meeting and the name had stuck, until Marietta had wound up with the "sneak" pimples and the novelty of that had overridden the interest in calling Luna names. She remembered a night when she'd stood under the mistletoe, talking to Harry about nargles, and thinking he had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen on a boy. He'd jumped out of the way pretty quickly, of course. He'd barely known her then.

When she was fifteen, she had spent the night crying because she had just found out Harry was going out with Ginny. Luna still felt guilty about that, but she'd had a terrible premonition that it was going to go badly, and knew it was no use telling either one of them, as they wouldn't have listened. She had liked him herself, it was true, but she had always beaten down that liking, accepting it as a lost cause. It still hurt to have it made so blatantly obvious that she'd missed her chance.

When she was sixteen, Ginny had just died, and Harry was so determined to win and stop the Death Eaters for good that it scared Luna to see the look on his face as he prepared for that final battle. She had helped as he checked and rechecked the plans and the supplies, and to her surprise, he had kissed her before he left, a kiss that started out as gentle as snow falling over the lake, and then turned into bruising kiss that had left her shaking and breathless. She had wanted, desperately to call "I love you!" after him, but had held back, knowing how horrifically clichéd it would have sounded. He had, for his part, left her without speaking a word. They had never, in fact, spoken of it, but the memory of that kiss had haunted her ever since.

When she was seventeen, Hogwarts had reopened and the golden trio had joined her to finish their last year, but it was not the same. Too many faces were missing, people who had not come back or simply could not come back.

When she was eighteen, she'd caught a terrible case of flu. The healer dosed her with Pepperup Potion, which made her nose run worse than the flu ever could have. It got so swollen that she looked like a clown and sounded muddled when finally felt well enough to talk to her friends for a few moments through the fireplace. Harry had responded by sending her a huge bouquet, the biggest arrangement she'd ever seen, with pale pink roses, baby's breath, fern fronds and a jaunty pink bow. The card had read, "A nose, I mean a rose, by any other name...get well soon! Love, Harry." She'd wondered if he had even figured out yet what love meant, and decided he probably had not.

For the past three years she had sat at home eating pizza and watching Muggle TV. Now she was twenty-two and had forgotten her own birthday! Oh, well, if she could have picked anything to do that day, being with Harry would have been her dream choice anyway. He was, as always, sweet, and loyal and sincere, and the most interesting person she had ever known. And he was still as cute as ever.

She did a final check on the rune puzzles, gave the okay to the one she wanted to run next, and then glanced at the clock. Grabbing her handbag, she tossed her owl a few treats, since she wasn't going to let him out that night, and strode out the door, eager for a good meal and a nice evening with Harry.

As she walked up to the Dragon Flagon, she noticed the crowd outside and wondered what was up. Had bowtruckles come in with the fireplace wood again? They were so difficult to handle when you went to toss another log on the fire. She saw several people in lime green robes Apparate onto the sidewalk in front of the door, and heard someone in the crowd shout, "You're too late! The poor woman is dead!"

Someone else yelled out, "No, no, let them in! Maybe she'll be okay."

Luna shoved past the crowd and literally burst into the restaurant. She glanced around and saw nice white tablecloths, with a couple of white daisies in a small crystal vase sitting in the center of each one. The tables were all empty, though. Most of the people still inside seemed to be grouped round a pair of feet sticking out in what looked like expensive, dragonhide high heels. Luna looked down and saw a pale face, with light, wide open, staring eyes, framed by limp, white blond hair. Oh, for Salazar's sake, it was Narcissa Malfoy. Oh, yes, that woman was dead. She heard someone mutter, "Murder, definitely. Maybe he used poison. He could have put it here some time during the altercation they had earlier."

"Luna?"

"Harry?"

She turned and saw him standing to one side of the body. He was hunched over slightly because an Auror she thought was named Dawlish was lashing Harry's hands together with a leather strap, as a female Auror of medium height, with very dark blonde hair, whom Luna did not know, stood alongside the two of them, wand at the ready.

Harry was dressed in Muggle clothes, a nice pair of tan trousers held up by a thick braided belt, and a dark blue shirt. The shirt had a huge blotch of something on the shoulder. His hair, untidy as ever, was sticking up in front.

"I guess I can't do dinner after all."

"What?" she said stupidly, beginning to catch on but not wanting to, figuring it all out, but not wanting any of this to actually be happening to her, and to certainly not to him.

"I bought you some flowers for your birthday," Harry said, gesturing his head at a table to the right, where a large bunch of multicolored carnations sat forlornly, their fluffy tops sticking out of the end of the green tissue they were wrapped in, "but you'll have to go get them yourself."

"Oh, Harry! You didn't!" she wailed.

"Get you a birthday bouquet?" H e looked puzzled and she noticed his eyes were still as green as the grass on Stoatshead hill on a May morning. They were, as always, absolutely gorgeous.

_Focus, Luna! Focus! _She hissed to herself.

"No! Poison Narcissa Malfoy!"

"Hell no! Oh, absolutely not! Trust me, Sweetie, if I'd wanted to kill that miserable old bat I would have done it years ago."

"That's enough, Miss," said the male Auror sharply. "We have to get to the Ministry now. We'll get to the bottom of this!"

Harry sighed, "Sorry, Luna," as he vanished. Luna for her part sat down hard on the nearest chair before she could fall down, and cradled the flowers in her arms. This was going to be the worst birthday ever- a new low.


	2. Chapter 2

A Very Memorable Birthday

Based on a plot bunny by Mary Janice Davidson

By: MRSTJ1

Chapter Two

Luna caught her breath and Apparated to the Ministry. They were checking Harry in for questioning.

"Well," he said cheerfully, when she appeared, "This feels a bit odd. I haven't been here in ages. It hasn't changed much. Thanks for coming along."

She waited until they took him to a holding cell, then got in to see him after the Aurors were finished questioning him by signing about six reams of parchment. The cell was pretty standard. There was a small table, a straight-backed chair, a metal framed bed, and a toilet with a sink over it. When Luna came in, he was sitting on the chair, but he got up and came over to the bars. The female Auror she'd seen earlier now sat on a bench outside the cell, listening to everything they said. She was wearing a Ministry badge that said "Ruby Hopkirk" on it. The girl was weirdly cheerful. It annoyed Luna.

"Are you related to Mafalda?" Harry asked, interestedly.

"She's my great-aunt," the girl replied.

"Never mind her, Harry. What happens next? Did you call anyone for help?"

"Not yet," he admitted.

"You saw me before you even called anyone else?"

"What can I say? I promised to spend sometime with you on your birthday, didn't I? You look really good tonight, by the way. I like that swirly skirt with those boots. It's very sexy. "

"Harry," she said, exasperated, "this is serious."

"I know. You can tell because I'm being so flippant. The worse things get the more stupid things I say."

The Auror laughed. "I have to admit, I have a lot of respect for any girl who would spend her birthday in custody with her incarcerated boyfriend. Any normal girl would run for her life."

Harry glanced over at her. "Luna's never exactly been a normal girl."

"Oh, thanks a lot. Et tu, Harry?" Luna said sourly.

"I mean that in a good way," he explained hurriedly to Ruby, then looked back at Luna. "Wait a minute," he said, with an amused expression on his face, his eyes twinkling. "You _love _me? Why didn't you ever tell me? This is hardly the place to start discussing something like that."

Luna looked back at the female Auror, who had snickered as Harry spoke, and gave her the most evil glance she could come up with.

"He's NOT my boyfriend. He's my best friend, and he's still acts like a boy, sort of, sometimes, but…oh, never mind!" If they had to talk in front of a female Auror, Luna wished Tonks could have been there, but she and Remus Lupin were on their honeymoon. The last time she had seen Harry had been at their wedding. They had danced together that night, too, and Harry had kissed her goodnight, a light kiss, like the brush of a fairy's wings. She closed her eyes, remembering how good it had felt to be in his arms, with her head on his shoulder. Wait, what about his shoulder?

"Harry, what happened to your shirt?"

"Oh, it's a very expensive elf-made wine, knowing Narcissa Malfoy. Narcissa threw her wine glass at me when we started to argue."

"You were arguing with her right before she died?" Luna shrieked. "No wonder they think you killed her!"

"Luna, don't go overboard about that!"

"I'll go overboard if I feel like going overboard, damn it! Now tell me what happened! Tell me everything that happened!"

"You and I were supposed to meet at seven for the interview, so I got there early hoping I could get a good table," he recited in a matter-of-fact fashion. "I put down the flowers I had gotten you for your birthday, and I was about to sit down to wait for you when I saw Mr. and Mrs., Diggory across the room. Well, whenever I see them, I talk to them, ask them how they're doing, oh, you know how it is! While I was talking to them Narcissa must have come in. I hadn't seen her when I first got there. The waiter had just brought her a drink when I went to walk past her to get back to our table. She said something nasty, and I said something nasty back, and we started arguing. It was nothing important, just the usual stupid stuff. She threw the wineglass at me, and then she fell over. She was dead when she hit the floor."

"Could she have had a heart attack?" Luna asked hopefully.

"Did she even have a heart?" Harry asked in a puzzled voice.

Luna pushed her hair back off her neck and rubbed her forehead wearily. Harry looked at her with concern. "Hey, look, you don't have to stay here, and you didn't get any dinner. Why don't you go home? I promise to give you an exclusive interview when I go to trial."

"I'm not going anywhere. No way…unless I go get some sandwiches. You must be starving. Would you like a sandwich?"

"You'd bring me a sandwich to jail on your birthday? You do love me!" Harry said, amused.

"Shut up, or they won't need to try you. I'll kill you and they'll need to try me."

When she got back she was carrying some ham sandwiches she had bought in a derelict Muggle pub around the corner from the Ministry telephone box. It had made Aberforth Dumbledore's place look like a palace. Dawlish was back, and Harry had his shirt off. She assumed it had been taken as evidence. She clutched the sack of sandwiches tightly. His body was very distracting.

Harry was not overly tall, and a bit thin, but he had wide shoulders, nipples that were especially distracting, not a lot of hair on his chest, but on his flat stomach a light fur ran down into his trousers. Merlin! She shook her head, trying to concentrate on what Dawlish was saying. Why hadn't this guy been fired after the war?

"We don't have enough evidence to hold you overnight, Mr. Potter, IF you have someone who will sign you out and be responsible for seeing you return tomorrow at two o' clock for another interview, you can go."

"That would be me," Luna squeaked and Harry looked at her gratefully.

Dawlish looked at her sourly. "In the meantime we will be checking the body of the deceased to determine if she was indeed poisoned, and we will be conducting more interviews with witnesses. Some people left before we got a chance to talk to them but if they had reservations at the restaurant we should be able to trace them."

"You're thinking that if you find an ulterior motive, then you can send me to Azkaban," Harry said heavily.

"Yes, Potter, that's exactly right," Dawlish replied. God, this guy could hold a grudge forever!

Dawlish went to get the forms they had to sign before they could go. They ate the ham sandwiches quickly standing on opposite sides of the cell bars.

When Dawlish came back, he let Harry out of the cell. It turned out Luna had to fill out about a dozen more sheets of parchment before they could actually leave. Harry looked over her shoulder as she signed each sheet. "This evening just keeps topping itself," he sighed. "Look at all of those stupid questions. It's like getting permission to study dragons. Is there anything in there about what you have to do if I bite someone on the leg?"

"I prefer to wait and hope for better things," Luna replied, distracted once again by his bare chest.

"Oooh, I think you do love me!" Harry said with a grin.

"As if you didn't know," she said lightly. "Now let's get you home."

"Dobby will be glad to see you again," Harry answered as they left the building.

"I'm not taking you home to your home. No such luck. I promised the Ministry I'd vouch for you showing up tomorrow, so you're coming with me to my place," Luna said, grabbing his arm so he couldn't wander off.

"We are definitely in love," he teased her.

"You just better not be a killer."

"Oh, I'm not. I just wish I could figure out what did happen. First I'm waiting for you, and then I'm getting tied up with leather, and I do NOT mean that in a good way."

Luna winced as she had a vision of Harry tied to her bedposts. Bad friend, Luna! Bad girl! She Apparated them to her flat, and he began to pace around her living room and dining area like a messy-haired panther.

"This is nice. It's very compact. I think there are still rooms at Grimmauld Place I haven't found yet. God only knows what I'll find in that place next."

"Let me see if I can find you something to wear. Aren't you getting cold?"

"Well, a little, but Narcissa is probably getting colder."

She found an old T-shirt of her father's that she sometimes used to sleep in. It had hung down to her knees when she had worn it, but she thought, looking at it critically, that it should be just right for Harry. When she held it out for him to take, his fingers closed over hers.

"Thanks, Luna, for everything. I can always count on you." Green eyes, familiar and beloved, were filling her world. There was nothing else- no shirt, no flat, no dead woman. She leaned in until she felt his lips on hers and put her arms around him. He kissed her back, tentatively, then with more assurance. The shirt fell out of her hand, onto the floor, and she was running her hands around his back

Then she yanked herself away. _Dead woman! Jail! Inquest! Poison! _

"Oh, God, that was totally inappropriate!" She moaned, humiliated, dropping down onto the couch.

"I know," he said cheerfully, joining her. "That's why I didn't kiss you before. Although I have to say, I've been thinking about how to give you a kiss all night. You've been so protective and all. It's very appealing."

"Put on the shirt, Harry. Let's figure this out."

"What, you and me? I thought we had decided. If I don't go to prison, we're going to be in loooove," he said in a sing-song voice

"Why do you always joke about things like that?"

"Never mind," he said hastily. "We have to be back at the Ministry at two tomorrow. What are we going to do then?"

Luna leaned back on the couch, as he pulled the shirt over his head. "Okay, Harry, if you didn't do it, who did? Who had a motive to kill Narcissa Malfoy?"

"Half the wizarding world, maybe? The woman was impossible! And don't even get me started on the Muggles who'd like to see her dead. She was always looking for a chance to insult the families of Muggleborns"

"Did you see anything weird at all before it after it happened?"

"No!"

"Come on, think. There must be something!"

"Luna, I've tried, believe me. Calm down. The Aurors will have to figure it out."

"Oh, you trust them? They think they already have their murderer. They think you did it. They're going to twist everything around so that the evidence fits. It's up to us to clear you! You can't trust them!"

"Oh, get serious, Luna. What else can I do? You're a great girl and I adore you, but you're not Jane Tennison."

"Who's Jane Tennison? Did she know Narcissa?"

"Never mind," Harry sighed, and then he kept her from talking any more for awhile by kissing her again.

"I don't exactly mind," she said when she caught her breath, "but I do find this a little weird after all of these years."

He cuddled her in his arms. "You've just had a very bad day. I'm trying to get you to relax."

"Yes, it's my birthday. They're always bad. I hate birthdays. They always ruin me. I always wind up acting in ways I wouldn't normally act. I hate it! I tell you, I hate birthdays!" She laid her head on his chest, and snuggled into his arms, and it was wonderful. She could have sworn that sirens were singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" in the background.

Then she jerked out of his embrace. "Harry, if Narcissa had just got to the restaurant, she didn't have any food on the table. And even if you could have put poison in the wine, she didn't drink it. She tossed it!"

His green eyes sparkled as they widened. "Oh, my God! I thought she was such a petty old crone for doing that, and it's going to save my arse! She couldn't have been poisoned!"

"Should we send an owl to Dawlish or Hopkirk?" she asked excitedly.

"Not at this hour. It's almost midnight," he said.

"Then what should we do?"

"Give them a chance to figure it out. If they don't do it on their own, we'll tell them in the morning."

Luna jumped up. "I'm going to tell them now!"

Harry swore under his breath. "You are not. You are not waking them up at this hour of the morning. If they don't hate me enough now, they will then. This irrational, loony side of you has always been sexy in its own way, but at the same time, it's as problematic as hell. Try and see reason, won't you?"

"I am seeing reason!" She ducked under his arm, and he grabbed her. They tripped over each other's feet and landed in a tangle on the floor.

She had almost all of the wind knocked out of her, so she had to gasp into his mouth when he kissed her. He took her parted lips as a sign of encouragement, and his tongue touched hers. When he nibbled her lower lip, she groaned.

"That will teach me a lesson."

"Oh, yes. I'm going to show you a thing or two," Harry said, leaning in for another long kiss.

If she had not been half-insane with longing, she would have been horribly embarrassed by the amount of dust in the carpet, but that was definitely another worry for another day.


	3. Chapter 3

A Very Memorable Birthday

By: MRSTJ1

Please note: This is based on a plot bunny by MaryJanice Davidson. Certain situations and comments in her Valentine story were adapted for the Potterverse, but no harm is meant and I want to give full credit to her for the original idea.

Chapter Three

Afterwards, when they had both showered, she put on a pair of silk pajamas that she had gotten when she had gone on a trip to Japan with her father right after the war. Luna had made a pot of tea and scrounged up some cinnamon biscuits. Harry had his borrowed shirt back on, and was wearing his boxer shorts under it. They settled back down on the couch and put their feet up on the coffee table.

"You do not really love me," she told him. "This is clearly a case of temporary insanity brought on by stress."

"Luna, I have loved you for a long time. I was just never ready to say it. But after what we've been through today, we have got to have a real relationship. You are loyal, and smart, and dedicated, and honest, and you've got an arse to die for. How can you even think, after tonight, of not wanting us to be together?"

"Oooh, aren't we proud of our stamina? Just because the third time was the charm doesn't mean that it's love." She did appreciate the compliments, though, especially the arse one.

"I was referring to the WHOLE night, "Harry said, with as much dignity as he could summon. "But I find the fact that you have such a one-track mind very interesting. I think you're protesting a bit much, don't you?"

"No," she replied in return, also with as much dignity as she could summon under the circumstances.

"I should get arrested for murder more often," Harry said, pulling her closer to him." It puts a lot into perspective. We've needed each other for a long time, but we've been fighting it."

"Never mind all of that. You are still in a lot of trouble, with a bunch of people who don't like you."

I'd say it was worth it."

He grinned, and stretched, and ran a hand through his hair, which was just as messy as she'd ever seen it. That was one thing she had always adored about his hair. It always looked as if he'd just had the greatest roll of his life. Hopefully he had. She certainly had, so it was only fair. She had an overwhelming urge to put her hands into it and kiss him again. "Love or not, flattery just might get you another go."

They were interrupted by a pounding on the door.

"What the hell? It's four o'clock in the morning," Harry said.

"Since when did you become a timekeeper?" Luna said with a sigh. "You didn't even have a watch that worked when we were back at school. Ronald had to keep showing you his."

"Open the door! It's Hopkirk!" a female voice called, and Luna jumped off the couch in a panic.

"Oh, no! They couldn't wait! They're coming to get you! What should we do? Should we pretend we're not home?"

"Luna, we have to open the door," Harry said practically. "They know we're supposed to be here. We'll be in even more trouble if we don't. Besides where else could we be at this hour of the morning?"

He walked over and pulled the door open.

"Hi, Ruby!"

The blonde woman walked into the room, looking tired but still weirdly cheerful. "Hello, Harry! Hey, those are nice shorts. I don't think I've ever seen a pair with snitches on them."

Luna rushed over, to stand squarely between Harry and the young Auror. "Harry didn't kill Narcissa Malfoy! He couldn't have killed her! He's innocent. You have to believe us!"

"Honey, would you calm down?" Harry said practically, talking Luna by the shoulders and steering her to one side.

Luna glared at him. "Why did you let her in?"

Harry ignored her. "Would you like to sit down?" he asked the Auror.

"This is my flat," Luna said firmly. "What if I don't want her in here? What if I don't want her to sit down? Harry, I won't let her take you away from me! I won't! What are you going to do next? Stand really still and hold out your hands so she can tie you up again?"

"Hey!" Ruby Hopkirk looked insulted as she plopped into a chair. "I already have a date lined up for tonight. It's my day off, and you better believe me, I need one after the night I just had."

Harry sat on the couch across from her, pulling Luna down with him. He looked from one young woman to the other. "Calm down. Luna. Why don't we at least let her explain why she's here?"

Luna faced off with the other blonde. "He didn't poison Narcissa! Check the shirt! She threw the wine at him. She didn't drink it! She didn't have any food! She couldn't have been poisoned!"

"That's what I came to tell you," Ruby said patiently. "She wasn't poisoned at all. She was hit with a killing curse, from behind. Once we figured that out, we knew Harry didn't do it. I'm sorry I came over so early, but I thought you'd want to know as soon as possible. We checked the seating plan at the restaurant, and we used that to catch the real killer. Will you stop shouting, Miss Lovegood? You're giving me one hell of a headache."

"You actually caught someone? You've already caught someone, tonight?" Luna was shocked.

"Yes, that's what we do, after all. We catch Dark Wizards who throw killing curses!" Ruby Hopkirk said sarcastically. "We figured it out with proper Auror procedures. What do you think this is? A muggle detective show?"

"There's no need to be shirty about it," Luna mumbled.

"There is so!" Ruby glared at her.

Harry interrupted quickly. "So who did it?"

"It was a revenge thing. She was killed by an ex-Death Eater who had a grudge against Lucius Malfoy."

"Well, that covers a lot of ground," Harry said.

"Yes, anyway, so I'm here to tell you that you do not have to come into the Ministry at two after all. And Miss Lovegood, I think it would be better for ALL of us if this didn't wind up in the next edition of the Quibbler!"

Harry groaned. "I never thought of that."

Luna squirmed. "Well, I did for a minute, but only for a minute."

"Well," said Ruby, "love can make you really stupid." She winked at them and slammed the door on her way out.

"You were hysterical," Harry said later, when they were snuggling in Luna's bed, under the quilt that she'd made from dozens of old T-shirts she'd picked up as souvenirs of places she'd gone with her father on Quibbler business. "I thought you were getting ready to hex Hopkirk."

"I didn't know where my wand was at that point or I might have actually done," Luna admitted.

"The point is," Harry said patiently, "whether it ever had anything to do with you or not, you have always gotten yourself involved in my problems. From the time everyone at Hogwarts was calling me a liar, up to now. And why is that?"

"It's because I love you. There, I admit it. Happy?"

"Very much so," Harry said with a grin, pulling her closer into the crook of his arm and kissing her on the top of her head.

She hesitated. "Will you tell me one thing, Harry?"

"Anything, Luna."

"Would you ever have gotten interested in me if Ginny Weasley hadn't of died?"

Harry looked sad. "I was always interested in you, Luna, even when we were just friends. I always cared about you. It used to make me furious when those girls in your dorm were so cruel to you. And I appreciated every bit of help you gave me. What Ginny and I had was completely different. It was sort of insane, because I never really cared what she thought about anything, and I certainly never confided in her about things the way I could you. I just liked the way she liked me for so long. It was nice knowing there was always someone there waiting around for me. That's why it was such a shock when she started going out with other guys."

"In a way, I was waiting for you, too, Harry," Luna admitted shyly, as the first streaks of pale morning light came creeping through the window, to make fanciful patterns on the wall.

"Ginny was just something I had to work through," Harry continued. "I wanted her back then because I needed her, or someone like her, at that point in my life. I needed someone who would think I was perfect, and would agree with me no matter what I did. She didn't even stand up to me when I broke up with her. She just took it, like she always put up with the superficial way I treated her, because of the image I had as this big, ideal, hero. It's different now. I need to have someone in my life who loves me for exactly who I am. You've always seen me for exactly who I am. I couldn't love Ginny because I didn't know back then what it really meant to love and be loved. Now I do. Real love is not idealizing someone. Real love doesn't mind if you're not perfect. An ideal is an ideal, because it's not something you can ever really have. Does that make sense?"

Luna looked at him, and nodded thoughtfully, as the last bit of jealous fear she would ever experience in her life left her. "It makes perfect sense."

She then yawned. "It sure didn't start off very well, but this year my birthday had a very nice ending."

"About the ending," Harry said, also yawning, "what are you doing for the rest of the day? It's almost time for you to go to work, and you haven't had any sleep."

Luna snuggled against him and closed her eyes. "I decided that I'm calling off. Colin can spend the day planning the photo shoot with Dean. I wouldn't want to be there for that anyway."

"Oh, God," Harry said. "You're actually going to take day off from the Quibbler, just to sleep with me?"

"If we actually get some sleep first. Would you mind?"

He kissed the top of her head again. "I guess not. I think I can manage to overlook all sorts of bad behavior in people who've stayed up all night on their birthdays."

The End.


End file.
